Romney looks like a winner to Iowans

Saturday

AMES, Iowa - As Iowa Republicans prepare to go first in the nominating sweepstakes that start on Tuesday, there is evidence that Mitt Romney is finally overcoming a nagging adversary - ambivalence.

AMES, Iowa — As Iowa Republicans prepare to go first in the nominating sweepstakes that start on Tuesday, there is evidence that Mitt Romney is finally overcoming a nagging adversary — ambivalence.

During a four-day bus tour that ended early yesterday, Romney drew big and enthusiastic crowds, anecdotally suggesting that he is peaking at the right time and validating polls indicating he will finish first or at least second to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

This is good news for the former Massachusetts governor, who has struggled nationally and in Iowa to secure support in polls from more than a quarter of the GOP base. Long the national frontrunner by default, Romney has been stuck in neutral — unable to inspire moderates or win the trust of conservatives.

“I’ve always called him a fragile frontrunner,” said Dennis J. Goldford, a Drake University political scientist. “Here in Iowa, and I think nationwide as well, Romney’s the guy your mother wants you to marry. He’s good-looking, he’s got lots of money, but you’re not in love with him. He doesn’t rock your world. That’s what Republicans have been looking for.”

After looking hard, vetting each of the six presidential candidates vying for their affections and finding most of them wanting for one reason or another, more Iowa Republicans are turning to Romney for a reason succinctly identified by the candidate’s wife, Ann, when she addressed more than 300 in a construction-company garage in Ames on Thursday night.

“I think you want to pick someone that’s going to beat Barack Obama,” she said to resounding cheers.

That motive overrides all others for Iowa Republicans. Regardless of where you go or which candidate you follow, Republicans here view the Democratic president as a failure and are willing to forsake the candidate they like most for the one they think has the best chance of winning. Increasingly, that appears to be Romney.

Diane Schlegel, 61, of Bouton, is the type of voter fueling Romney’s rise. Still shopping, she went to the village of Perry on Wednesday to hear Paul and was impressed. But on caucus night, she will find her way to the camp best positioned for victory in November.

“I’m going to vote for the strongest candidate to win against Obama,” said Schlegel, a real-estate agent. “To me, it looks like Mitt Romney is the one who could come out on top.”

Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University in Ohio, said there is a reason Obama’s campaign has singly and repeatedly attacked Romney.

“I think Romney is the Republican candidate that would be hardest for Obama or the Democrats to demonize,” Smith said. “He is not radical on any dimension, there appear to be no personal issues in his past, and he has significant experience. Romney can make a strong case to moderates and independents, and he projects well on television. In some ways, he is the nightmare candidate for Democrats. Ironically, he is the nightmare candidate for some conservative Republicans who want a firebrand.”

Many Iowa conservatives watch Romney suspiciously, saying he opportunistically changed positions on key issues, including from an avowed supporter of a woman’s right to choose abortion, while running for governor of Massachusetts, to an abortion opponent, as a presidential candidate.

“I’m in the anybody-but-Romney camp,” Richard Halvorsen, GOP chairman of Warren County, said after introducing Texas Gov. Rick Perry to an audience in Indianola. “I’ve been a conservative all my life, and I can’t support someone who sticks his finger in the wind to decide where he stands."

Several hundred braved the chill and drizzle in the parking lot of a West Des Moines supermarket yesterday to hear Romney and an influential backer, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, before Romney jetted to New Hampshire, where he is heavily favored to win the primary on Jan.?10. Interviews revealed that rather than social issues, many Iowa Republicans are worried about the economy and jobs, and think Romney’s success as a businessman is a plus.

“He’s a natural leader,” said Amy Hudson, 47, of Clive, a recently laid-off health-insurance administrator. “He’s led his own company, he turned around the Olympics, he has a calming demeanor, and he doesn’t get ruffled. I think his leadership will drive home jobs.”

She and others are not bothered by Romney’s flip-flops, including on the individual insurance mandate in the federal health-care law that was modeled, in part, after the law Romney championed in Massachusetts.

“People have a right to change their opinions and their minds over time as they get new information or circumstances change,” Becky Christiansen, 59, said after Romney’s speech in Ames. “ I don’t see that as a sign of weakness. I see it as a sign of maturity.”

In his speech, Romney accused Obama of trying to make America “an entitlement society where government takes from some and gives to others.” A multi-millionaire, Romney posited his business success as evidence that he can turn around the economy.

“I only spent four years in government,” he said. “I didn’t inhale. I’m still a business guy."

jhallett@dispatch.com

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